Mr. Warde Manuel,
I am writing as a ten year season ticket holder (since UCONN began playing at Rentschler Field), avid UCONN athletics fan, and UCONN alum.
First, I thank you for taking the time to read my email. I know that you are busy and are as frustrated with the performance of the football team in the past three seasons as the devoted UCONN fanbase. Your patient and thorough evaluation of Paul Pasqualoni and the UCONN Football program is very much appreciated. Your patience has been astounding and incredibly fair considering that Mr. Pasqualoni is not only a good man, but also was in place before you came to UCONN. Some people in your position might have made a decision too quickly because a coach was not "their guy", but you have given Mr. Pasqualoni ample time to show improvement that, on the heels of an 0-4 start to this season, clearly is not happening.
When Jeff Hathaway hired Paul Pasqualoni, it was met with mixed reviews within the UCONN fanbase. Personally, I rallied behind Paul and wanted him to succeed in taking UCONN Football to the next level after Randy Edsall departed on the day following our Fiesta Bowl appearance. I like Paul as a person and respect his work ethic that he has brought to the university. I defended his hire as someone that could rally Connecticut football together; unite Connecticut high school football with the state's collegiate program. I thought that your decision to retain him entering the third year on his contract was the correct one based on the way the team seemed to have rallied late in the season against Louisville and placed several members of the team into the NFL. This is/was a pivotal season for not only UCONN Football, but UCONN athletics as a whole. UCONN Football needed to re-establish itself this season on the heels of being left out of the higher profile athletic and academic conferences and that is what makes this 0-4 start so troubling to me and the UCONN fanbase. As football struggles, that makes the challenge of finding a better conference home even more difficult. It also puts pressure on UCONN's National Championship Basketball programs and other athletic programs because our head coaches are forced to recruit against geographic arch-rivals who can "sell" a better, more competitive, conference to incoming high school prospects.
On behalf of the hundreds of UCONN fans that I have personally spoken with over the course of the year and, most recently, the course of the first month of this 2013 football season, I implore you to take action. UCONN Football needs a change at the head coach and offensive line coach positions as soon as possible. This type of performance regression in such a pivotal year for UCONN is very troubling. Since I have been a season ticket holder, I have always taken pride in the mental and physically toughness demonstrated by past UCONN teams. I was at Rentschler Field to see Terry Caulley break a dozen tackles against Indiana. I was at Rentschler Field when DJ Hernandez hurled the game winning ball into the parking lots after beating Pittsburgh in double overtime. I was at Rentschler Field when Robert Griffin III left with his Baylor teammates with their ears ringing. I was also at Notre Dame Stadium when Andre Dixon scampered into the corner of the end zone in front of the Irish student section to secure the team's first win to honor the memory of a fallen teammate (after losing several HARD FOUGHT heart-breaking battles against good competition). I was at every home game (and made the trip to Ann Arbor) for the magical 2010 season that helped propel UCONN to its first ever BCS appearance, including the game that fans rushed onto the field after finally beating West Virginia in overtime. I have been to every home game in the Paul Pasqualoni era, including the raucous crowd that came out to support our Huskies against Michigan. I have supported this team and our players through lean years and I have not once questioned the team's effort…until this season.
You are a football man and know more about the sport and how to run an athletic department than I ever will. You are also around the team, the players, and the coaching staff far more than I can be. All I can see is what the players show during the limited exposure I get during gamedays and the occasional open practice. I will trust your eyes and your heart when evaluating, not only this 2013 team, its coaches and players, but the future prospects of UCONN Football. My eyes and heart tell me that this 2013 team has given up on its head coach, that the messages are not getting through the players on gamedays, and that UCONN Football is in SERIOUS jeopardy of falling into the wasteland of college football irrelevance. Our geographic arch rivals all find themselves in better conference situations than UCONN and are all playing more competitive football with brighter futures. Digging out from a disastrous 2013 season (after what I saw this afternoon against Buffalo, I am not confident in our ability to win ONE GAME this season) will extremely tough sledding and, the longer it takes for change to occur, I fear the longer it will take to put UCONN Football back on its upward trajectory that it was on in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. Making a coaching change now not only holds the players accountable (they are part of the blame too) with the new head coach, interim and/or future hire, but it also might energize the fanbase again. I fear that attendance at future games this season will be dismal and the great atmosphere that everybody enjoyed against Michigan, in a year when we were 0-2 no less!, will be a distant memory.
No, I am not giving up on my season tickets and never will. I am sure that you are probably being flooded with several emails, letters, and phone calls like mine and some may be saying that they are not going to renew their tickets if a change isn't made. I can ensure you that I am not one of those fans. But I can't speak for others who, I have heard and feel, will not renew next season and beyond if a change is not made. I am old enough to remember going to Hartford Whalers games as a youth when there were so many empty seats inside the arena, that if you smacked a seat, dust would fly (I am not kidding! Actual dust would fly if you smacked an empty seat). The Whalers relocated out of Hartford because ownership, at the time, failed to make the necessary adjustments and take the necessary risks to compete. They never dared to win. I realize that it is unfair to brand UCONN Football this way, but I am begging you and whoever else you might lean on for advice to be bold. Please do not give up on this team, our GREAT university, our state and its communities, our student body and fanbase by allowing this pattern of regression to continue (and worsen). PLEASE dare to win. Dare to be bold. Dare to invigorate. Dare to energize. If you do, you will re-energize this program and the fans who follow it and give everyone hope that the future can and will be bright.
Making these types of decisions are never easy and I do not envy the task that bestows upon you. I would love nothing more than for Paul and members of his staff to find a "soft landing" somewhere, if possible. I wish him nothing but the best and want to thank him for his efforts in running the program that I love. But UCONN needs you now more than ever. Under the previous leadership, UCONN athletics did not dare to grow or be bold. From what I've seen in your handling the Men's Basketball program and your hands-on approach attending as many games as possible, I KNOW that you are just the kind of leader UCONN needs to dare to be bold.
Thank you for reading my email and please know that it comes out of a deep and passionate love for my alma mater. If I have have offended, please accept my sincere apologies. Thank you for carrying the torch and ensuring that it will always shine bright for my Huskies!
Sincerely,
Dooley
Section 139
